Friday, 11 December 2015

It was the night of December 2/3, 1984, when a mass disaster which was held as the worst in these recent years was caused when the leakage of a poisonous gas - METHYL ISOCYANATE (mic) along with other toxic gases used to manufacture pesticides happened in BHOPAL( The capital of Madhya Pradesh- India) .
The plant from where these gases were leaking was of UNION CARBIDE INDIA LTD. which was a subsidiary company of UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION- a multinational company registered in U.S.A. which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of THE DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY.
The disaster resulted in deaths of over 5000 people and there were serious injuries to thousands of people in bhopal. In just few hours of the leak, the streets were filled with dead bodies of humans and animals. people suffered through permanent blindness, problems in respiration system, and damage to foetus of many pregnant women.

The main problem which took place after this was of the claims which were filed by the victims and their families. the cases were filed against the company in india, company in U.S.A , and also against the government. An ordinance by central government was passed after this to settle all the claims - THE BHOPAL GAS LEAK DISASTER( PROCESSING OF CLAIMS) ACT, 1985. which was passed on 29th march 1985. it had 12 sections , which had all the details about the claims for the disaster.

There was also an order by District and Sessions Judge to UCC( union carbide company) to pay an interim relief of Rs. 350 CRORES to the Gas victims, which was further reduced to Rs. 250 crores by madhya pradesh High Court.

In this case the rule of ABSOLUTE LIABILITY appilies, hence there was no escape for the company on the grounds of SABOTAGE(destroy).